Chances are that you have dealt with this genealogy research challenge before, or eventually will. You’re looking up a John, Mary, Michael, or Ann with some relatively common surname, and to your surprise there are over 400 or even over a thousand people with the name you’re looking up. Before you spend hours combing through hundreds of listings that match the name and another piece of data you should try something different first.

A frequent complaint in genealogy research is “I would love to learn about my family tree but I can’t afford professional help or the fees all these websites charge”. The amount of money you can spend is inversely proportional to the combined volume of time you’re able to spend doing it AND how resourceful you are. Money and time must be spent and that is just a fact. Play it smart, however, and there are some great things that can be accomplished with relatively little money.